I was recently read ABC's article entitled, "Mega Millions Fever: Tips for Buying Your Lucky Lottery Ticket”. This article, combined with a news video, tried to provide tips that would better the viewer’s odds of winning the lottery. Apparently ABC knows nothing about math, the lottery, and statistics, because the tips they provided are completely untrue.
The first tip they said is to pick your own numbers. They state that you have a greater chance of winning if you choose the numbers rather than letting the computer randomly pick the numbers for you. This is totally incorrect. Since the winning numbers are random anyway, it doesn't matter how the numbers were chosen.
Their second tip is to “do your homework”. They suggest going online and making sure the numbers you play have never won before. I going to assume that ABC didn’t do their homework because winning numbers are chosen completely at random. There is no combination of numbers that is overdue to be chosen.
The final tip they gave is to avoid lottery fever. When the lottery is high they suggest not go overboard with tickets because “the odds are still the same no matter how much you spend”. This is completely the opposite of the truth. Realistically, the more you buy the higher the chance you have to win.
Obviously ABC is trying to dumb down their articles enough to entice a less educated, more gullible audience. Instead of reporting on the news that is important to our country, ABC decided to encourage others to waste their money. There is only one tip that needs to be remembered before buying a lottery ticket and that is to not play the lottery.
This blog post made me smile. I am not sure if that was your intent, but non-the-less I found it humorous. On a more serious note, you are right, what a waste of time and mind power to write such a useless article.
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